One of the most important figures in Chinese history, Confucius is often overlooked outside his native country, even though his philosophical and ethical teachings have shaped world culture, and Confucius himself was a fascinating figure. An art historian and the former curator of California's East Asian Art at the Pacific Asian Museum, Meher McArthur here portrays the outspoken and uncompromising man who revolutionized Chinese society nearly 2500 years ago, when the country was merely a loose web of feudal provinces—no small feat for the illegitimate son of a retired soldier and a teenage concubine, who once received a prophecy from the local fortuneteller that she would give birth to a "throneless king."